Fallen
This headline hit harder for some reason. Likely because his writings were more impactful than a number of the other pastors and Christian leaders who have succumbed to similar sins. Author and speaker Phillip Yancy, the author of What’s So Amazing about Grace?, shared that he had engaged in an eight year-long consensual affair with a married woman. Yancy himself has been married for 55 years. He resigned immediately from the ministry and left the public eye. Oddly enough, my initial response was a weird sense of relief, and it really should not have been. But in a world where the headlines continue to expose the hidden sins of pastors and Christian leaders that involve assault, coercion, and minors it is oddly different to see a headline of what appears to be a consensual affair. What is this place we have come to that these things seem far too common and largely go unspoken about? But.
God is still God. Jesus is still Jesus. Grace is still Grace.
Sin is still Sin.
Yet, there are things that come back to mind in the midst of this revelation. Yancy is sadly not the first, and very sadly, not the last that will be revealed.
Our Hope is in Christ, not Pastors
Seems obvious at first, but is it really? The cult of leadership is alive and well not just in communities, nations, and the like. It is very alive in the church. Your pastor is not the grounding of your eternal hope. Only Jesus is. Your pastor can be and is wrong at times. Maybe a lot of times. A position in the church, paid or volunteer, is not the foundation of being right. Paul had no issue with his teachings being questioned, and researched. Do you?
Our Hope is in Christ, not Churches
The localized community of believers that you are connected with is not your hope either. The church should be a place of gracious love and community. Many can become focused on doing works for God instead of doing the work God commands. It should be a place of authenticity and encouragement rather than shallowness and condemnation. Christians can often create a hierarchy of sin and ignore the “lesser” ones in their own eyes. But sin doesn’t come in hierarchy. It all stands equally condemned before God. And it is all equally atoned for at the cross. The church is a group of messed up people trying to help each other be not so messed up in Christ. The church points you to Christ, not anything or anyone else.
Our Hope is in Christ, not Denominations
So, perhaps look at this one as the church paragraph but on a much larger scale. No denomination has cornered the market on hope. Eternity is not unlocked by a membership card to a certain belief system, or theological interpretation.
Our Hope is in Christ, not Ourselves
It is really easy in the face of another person’s failure to hold our own selves up high. I am no better, more righteous, or more deserving of grace than Phillip Yancy. He is no less deserving because of his sin. My works, choices, and beliefs don’t grant me more hope in Jesus. Being a good person doesn’t give me more hope. I should be a good person because of my hope in Christ. Rightly placed, eternal hope is the catalyst to righteous living in Christ today. Righteous living doesn’t gain favor, or keep favor, it is a response to the favor already secure in Christ. You are not God. Neither am I. When I put myself in the place of God in my own heart things go horribly wrong.
It was a really incredible move by God to not put us in charge of grace. Phillip Yancy taught me that. And it still stands today. We may try to be in charge of grace, but we simply don’t have the ability to do it. And quite frankly, I am grateful that someone other than God doesn’t have control over my own hope in Christ. The things, the leaders, and the people of this world will fail us. If not now, eventually. Our hope rightly placed in Christ will sustain us through all of it. It isn’t that we all just want grace. Without it, we can be and do nothing in the world.